Bills lost 6 starters from last year's team. 4 aren't on an NFL roster and one is a projected backup

[DCbillsfan]

1 hour ago, LeGOATski said:

I'm surprised at Justin Zimmer. That kid is a beast. You'd think he'd at least be a backup somewhere.

I think he's still recovering from an injury - knee?  Wouldn't surprise me if Bills signed him to PS later this season.

[947]

Don't forget Mario Addison. He's currently listed as backing up Hughes in Houston.

[DCbillsfan]

1 hour ago, Inigo Montoya said:

Beasley, Sanders, Williams, and Star are vets on the downside of their career.  They helped stabilize the Bills' roster when Beane was tearing it down and building it back up and were solid free agent contributors.  In each case Beane found younger players to do the job for less at the same or close to the same level.  I think it's just the normal churn of an NFL roster in the salary cap era and nothing more.

 

 

Replaced by younger, cheaper players with more athletic upside.  Von Miller being the exception.  

[SoCal Deek]

I’ve often mentioned this: If every player was to play for ten years, and they don’t, each season would see 5.3 new players on the roster. And that doesn’t even factor in free agency, and the other ebbs and flows of roster formation. So it looks to me like the Bills are right on schedule. Nothing to see here. 

[billybrew1]

2 hours ago, CorkScrewHill said:

Just looking at offense and defense ... Cole Beasley, Star Lotoulelai, Daryl Williams, and Emmanuel Sanders never signed with another team and while there was speculation Star and Sanders may be contemplating retirement, neither has as of yet.

 

That leaves Jerry Hughes starting for the Texans and Levi Wallace fighting for a starting job on the Steelers though there was speculation from Steelers media that Akhello Witherspoon was leading that competition (also referenced here https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/predicting-the-steelers-2-deep-depth-chart-of-the-week-1-defense/ss-AA11pjfF#image=8 )

 

Our depth players that played significant minutes Harrison Phillips will start in Minnesota and Jon Feliciano will start for the Giants and Mitch Trubisky who didn't play significant minutes thankfully is anticipated to start in Pittsburgh to begin the season. Cody Ford is a backup in Arizona, Efe Obada is 3rd string in Washington, while A.J. Klein and Justin Zimmer never found another team. 

 

For a team that is considered incredibly deep (which I agree they are) I find it surprising that only one of our 6 ex starters are expected to start on another team. Perhaps it is a situation where the collection of the parts elevates the individual. Would be interested in others thoughts on this.

 

We’re incredibly deep now, not last year. We’re deeper at RB, TE, we have a newer, better, younger, more athletic, more talented DL. We’re deeper at LB and CB…. We’re the same at QB and WR and while we have a better OL, We had better depth last year.

[Billzgobowlin]

2 hours ago, CorkScrewHill said:

Just looking at offense and defense ... Cole Beasley, Star Lotoulelai, Daryl Williams, and Emmanuel Sanders never signed with another team and while there was speculation Star and Sanders may be contemplating retirement, neither has as of yet.

 

That leaves Jerry Hughes starting for the Texans and Levi Wallace fighting for a starting job on the Steelers though there was speculation from Steelers media that Akhello Witherspoon was leading that competition (also referenced here https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/predicting-the-steelers-2-deep-depth-chart-of-the-week-1-defense/ss-AA11pjfF#image=8 )

 

Our depth players that played significant minutes Harrison Phillips will start in Minnesota and Jon Feliciano will start for the Giants and Mitch Trubisky who didn't play significant minutes thankfully is anticipated to start in Pittsburgh to begin the season. Cody Ford is a backup in Arizona, Efe Obada is 3rd string in Washington, while A.J. Klein and Justin Zimmer never found another team. 

 

For a team that is considered incredibly deep (which I agree they are) I find it surprising that only one of our 6 ex starters are expected to start on another team. Perhaps it is a situation where the collection of the parts elevates the individual. Would be interested in others thoughts on this.

 

Cole was essentially the third wideout, not sure I would consider that a starter.  I guess that depends the matchup.  He was also outspoken on vaccinations and I think for some reason that hurt him.  Sanders was a vet that was a bridge to Davis and same with Williams and Bates.  I do find it interesting how much the staff loved Star but I think he played his way out of the starting lineup and off the team.  Age will do this to players and I bet you will see that next year with a couple of guys.

[BarleyNY]

2 hours ago, CorkScrewHill said:

Just looking at offense and defense ... Cole Beasley, Star Lotoulelai, Daryl Williams, and Emmanuel Sanders never signed with another team and while there was speculation Star and Sanders may be contemplating retirement, neither has as of yet.

 

That leaves Jerry Hughes starting for the Texans and Levi Wallace fighting for a starting job on the Steelers though there was speculation from Steelers media that Akhello Witherspoon was leading that competition (also referenced here https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/predicting-the-steelers-2-deep-depth-chart-of-the-week-1-defense/ss-AA11pjfF#image=8 )

 

Our depth players that played significant minutes Harrison Phillips will start in Minnesota and Jon Feliciano will start for the Giants and Mitch Trubisky who didn't play significant minutes thankfully is anticipated to start in Pittsburgh to begin the season. Cody Ford is a backup in Arizona, Efe Obada is 3rd string in Washington, while A.J. Klein and Justin Zimmer never found another team. 

 

For a team that is considered incredibly deep (which I agree they are) I find it surprising that only one of our 6 ex starters are expected to start on another team. Perhaps it is a situation where the collection of the parts elevates the individual. Would be interested in others thoughts on this.

 

Really wonder what happened to Daryl Williams. He looked very good for one season. Then poof!  Back to JAG. If I had to speculate, I’d guess that he found an advantage that was not sustainable. But again, that is pure conjecture. 

[BarleyNY]

2 hours ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

Jerry Hughes might be my favorite bill over the last 10 years. That being said…. 40>55. 
 

The roster didn’t see major overhauls, but did make improvements in certain particular areas (DE, OL, RB, QB, WR).

 

If you wanted to argue the other side of that, you could say that CB MIGHT be weaker than at the beginning of last year, mostly due to two rookies and an injured all-pro. 
 

QB….+
RB….+
FB….=
WR…+
TE….=
OL….+
 

DE….+
DT….+
LB….=

CB….-

S……=
 

Specials….=

 

 

QB….= Josh was about as good as you get last season, not sure how you can expect more
RB….=/+ Marginal improvement possible with Cook, but it’s unproven
FB….= Sure
WR…+ Agree if this is because Davis improved last season 
TE….= agree
OL….= This is a worry. On paper they got better at run blocking and worse at pass blocking. Overall they might be a push, but for this team I think it could be a real negative l. 
 

DE….+ Agree. I’d give it a ++ as Miller is a huge addition 
DT….+ Probably
LB….= agree

CB….- agree, and it’s a real worry. With Tre coming back from injury there might be a very big drop off

S……= agree, though the dings are a worry
 

Specials….= agree

[Charles Romes]

Add AJ Klein to the list of Bills regulars the rest of the league has no interest in. With one Telling exception Beane has been great at cutting bait.  

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

1 hour ago, DJB said:

Soooo…. we are doomed?!?!!?

On the contrary my good man 👨 

 

The Bills are so loaded, not only are they letting quality experience walk away, they just paid a TE $3 Mil to come practice with the team. 
 

 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

2 hours ago, CorkScrewHill said:

For a team that is considered incredibly deep (which I agree they are) I find it surprising that only one of our 6 ex starters are expected to start on another team. Perhaps it is a situation where the collection of the parts elevates the individual. Would be interested in others thoughts on this.

 

Offensively it all starts with JA17. 

 

Defensively, I think we had a good defense last year. I Just don't think we have a great defense like the numbers suggested. We played some bad QB's and bad offenses and that helped out the defensive rankings quite a bit. I expect the defense to take a step back this year. Not a huge surprise because they were ranked #1 last year I think in both yards and points. But they could take a bigger drop back then some realize. Still a good defense but maybe more around 10 or so in the rankings when it is all said and done.

[Dopey]

12 minutes ago, Charles Romes said:

Add AJ Klein to the list of Bills regulars the rest of the league has no interest in. With one Telling exception Beane has been great at cutting bait.  

I think I see what you did there... I think.

[Mr. WEO]

Star, Williams, Sanders....bums

 

Cleared the deadwood.

[Long Suffering Fan]

3 hours ago, CorkScrewHill said:

For a team that is considered incredibly deep (which I agree they are) I find it surprising that only one of our 6 ex starters are expected to start on another team. Perhaps it is a situation where the collection of the parts elevates the individual. Would be interested in others thoughts on this.

 

3 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

In each case Beane found younger players to do the job for less at the same or close to the same level.  I think it's just the normal churn of an NFL roster in the salary cap era and nothing more.

 

 

1 hour ago, SoCal Deek said:

I’ve often mentioned this: If every player was to play for ten years, and they don’t, each season would see 5.3 new players on the roster. And that doesn’t even factor in free agency, and the other ebbs and flows of roster formation. So it looks to me like the Bills are right on schedule. Nothing to see here. 

 

I agree.  It is normal churn and almost all teams have it.  However, the real question is this:  Did we get better with our churn or worse?

 

For me the answer to that question is Levi Wallace.  I expected him to get a fairly fat contract as a starting corner.  When he only got $4M/year, I was taken aback.  We made a $3M gamble on a TE coming off an injury.  If we wanted Wallace to be our CB2, we would have signed him at that price.  That signaled loud and clear that the Bills thought that position was a problem and that they wanted to get better there.  When he struggled to win the starting job in Pitt, I think that thought was confirmed.

 

Add to that thought that both the DL and OL have gotten better this year (IMHO) and I think we didn't just get better, we got much better in the churn.  

 

Side note - it is fun to have a chance to use the word churn.  I kept thinking of Amos Burton as I typed this.

 

Second side note - I do fully expect our defensive stats to be worse this year (because of schedule) even though the defense is better.

[BuffaloBill]

3 hours ago, CorkScrewHill said:

Just looking at offense and defense ... Cole Beasley, Star Lotoulelai, Daryl Williams, and Emmanuel Sanders never signed with another team and while there was speculation Star and Sanders may be contemplating retirement, neither has as of yet.

 

That leaves Jerry Hughes starting for the Texans and Levi Wallace fighting for a starting job on the Steelers though there was speculation from Steelers media that Akhello Witherspoon was leading that competition (also referenced here https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/predicting-the-steelers-2-deep-depth-chart-of-the-week-1-defense/ss-AA11pjfF#image=8 )

 

Our depth players that played significant minutes Harrison Phillips will start in Minnesota and Jon Feliciano will start for the Giants and Mitch Trubisky who didn't play significant minutes thankfully is anticipated to start in Pittsburgh to begin the season. Cody Ford is a backup in Arizona, Efe Obada is 3rd string in Washington, while A.J. Klein and Justin Zimmer never found another team. 

 

For a team that is considered incredibly deep (which I agree they are) I find it surprising that only one of our 6 ex starters are expected to start on another team. Perhaps it is a situation where the collection of the parts elevates the individual. Would be interested in others thoughts on this.

 

 

Too me the biggest upgrade will be Davis replacing Sanders.  Sanders was mostly invisible during the season.  

[Robert Paulson]

Now that the team is turned over and this is beane's team I was hoping to see  less pickups of old washed up vets. He got me again this year with the OJ signing. He loves the security going into the draft of having most of his holes filled. 

 

We can expect to turn over these old players next year: one or both safeties(probably 1 and 1 over the next 2 years), ~ 2 on the online, 2-3 special team starters 

 

That is how we stay competitive: replace 2-3 starters in each of the 3 phases every year with draftees/backups. Then PS players become the new  backups. 

[EmotionallyUnstable]

57 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

 

QB….= Josh was about as good as you get last season, not sure how you can expect more
RB….=/+ Marginal improvement possible with Cook, but it’s unproven
FB….= Sure
WR…+ Agree if this is because Davis improved last season 
TE….= agree
OL….= This is a worry. On paper they got better at run blocking and worse at pass blocking. Overall they might be a push, but for this team I think it could be a real negative l. 
 

DE….+ Agree. I’d give it a ++ as Miller is a huge addition 
DT….+ Probably
LB….= agree

CB….- agree, and it’s a real worry. With Tre coming back from injury there might be a very big drop off

S……= agree, though the dings are a worry
 

Specials….= agree

I was commenting on the state of the roster, not Allen in particular. The QB room is undeniably better with Keenum. They’ve upgraded depth. 

[BarleyNY]

2 minutes ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

I was commenting on the state of the roster, not Allen in particular. The QB room is undeniably better with Keenum. They’ve upgraded depth. 

That’s a fair take then. I don’t think much of either Trubisky or Keenum so I’d leave it as a push. I can see the possibility that Keenum is better though. He’s certainly not worse. 

[Wizard]

Agree that it is surprising Williams has not signed with another team.

 

Personally, I would prefer Williams as a tackle/guard backup/spot starter than Hart or Von Roten for his starting experience with the Bills, versatility, and the unwritten law which includes that our team NEEDS a "Williams" on this roster for luck and for posterity's sake.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Wizard

[John from Riverside]

I’m gonna smile internally if our rookie cornerbacks come out and dominate the Rams there has been so much made of our rookies demise before the season even starts yet both have looked excellent and camp